was  willing  to  consider  as  an  alternative  candidate  for  the  see  of  St  David’s  in  1199
because  ‘he  has  often  visited  Wales  and  dwells  upon  her  borders’-—as  well  as  Peter
de  Leche,  archdeacon  of  Worcester.63
However,  Giraldus’s  closest  English  connections  were  with  two  cathedral  churches:
Hereford  and  Lincoln.  He  appears  to  have  spent  about  two  years  at  Hereford  following
  his  retirement  from  the  court  in  1194  and  praised  it  in  a  poem  as  a  place  of  peace
and  learning:64  he  held  a  canonry  there,  benefiting  from  the  patronage  of  Bishop
William  de  Vere,  who  sought  to  attract  scholars  to  his  episcopal  see  and  who  probably
  commissioned  Giraldus  to  write  a  revised  Life  of  the  church’s  patron  saint,
Ethelbert.65  Giraldus  donated  copies  of  his  two  books  on  Ireland  and  a  version  of  his
Speculum  Ecclesie  to  the  cathedral  library  and  was  on  friendly  terms  with  a  number
of  the  canons,  especially  the  scholar  and  poet  Simon  de  Freine,  who  wrote  two
poems  to  him.66  But  it  was  to  Lincoln  that  Giraldus  went  c.  1196  to  continue  his
theological  studies  when  he  was  unable  to  travel  to  Pans  again  on  account  of  the
renewal  of  hostilities  between  Philip  Augustus  and  Richard  I,  and  it  was  to  Lincoln
that  he  retired  c.  1208.67  With  its  extensive  library—to  which  Giraldus  donated
several  volumes—and  the  company  of  other  scholars,  notably  William  de  Montibus,
Lincoln  provided  a  congenial  environment  for  Giraldus  and  it  was  there  that  he  wrote
many  of  his  later  works,  including  a  Life  of  the  see’s  first  Norman  bishop,  Remigius
(1067-92),  in  support  of  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure  his  canonization,  as  well
as  of  Bishop  Hugh  (1186-1200),  canonized  in  1220.68

63  Giraldus,  Opera  1  pp.  306-7;  translations  from  Butler  (as  n.  22)  pp.  145-6.  Giraldus  had
other  links  with  Worcester  through  Baldwin,  who  had  been  bishop  of  the  see  (1180-4)
before  his  translation  to  Canterbury:  cf.  Lloyd  (as  n.  3)  2  p.  561  and  n.  132.  Note  also  that
Giraldus’s  Vita  S.  Remigii  included  an  account  of  Roger,  bishop  of  Worcester:  Giraldus,
Opera  7  pp.  62-7.
64  Ibid.  1  pp.  378-80.
65  Dorothy  Humphreys,  Some  Types  of  Social  Life  as  Shown  in  the  Works  of  Gerald  of
Wales,  unpublished  Oxford  University  B.Litt.  thesis,  Oxford  1936,  pp.  139-96;  Julia
Barrow,  A  Twelfth-Century  Bishop  and  Literary  Patron:  William  de  Vere,  in:  Viator  18
(1987)  pp.  184-6.  Another  canon  of  St  David’s,  Reginald  Foliot,  was  also  a  member  of
Bishop  William’s  household:  ibid.  p.  1  84.
66  Giraldus,  Opera  1  pp.  382-4,  409.  See  also  ibid.  pp.  249,  268-71,  334-5;  Lefèvre  et  al.,
Speculum  Duorum  (as  n.  20)  pp.  157-67;  and  cf.  R.  W.  Hunt,  English  Learning  in  the  Late
Twelfth  Century,  in:  R.  W.  Southern  (ed.),  Essays  in  Medieval  History,  London  1968,  pp.
121-2.
6'  Giraldus,  Opera  1  p.  93;  Richard  M.  Loomis  (ed.),  Gerald  of  Wales  (Giraldus  Cambrensis):
The  Life  of  St.  Hugh  of  Avalon,  Bishop  of  Lincoln  1186-1200,  New  York/London  1985,
pp.  xv-xviii.
68 Humphreys  (as  n.  65)  pp.  197-232;  H.  Mackinnon,  William  de  Montibus:  A  Medieval
Teacher,  in:  T.  A.  Sandquist  and  M.  R.  Powicke  (eds.),  Essays  in  Medieval  History  Presented
  to  Bertie  Wilkinson,  Toronto  1969,  pp.  32-45;  Loomis,  Life  of  St.  Hugh  (as  n.  67);
David  M.  Smith  (ed.),  English  Episcopal  Acta  I:  Lincoln  1067-1185,  London  1980,  p
xxxi.  Giraldus  also  held  the  living  of  Chesterton  in  the  diocese  from  c.  1190:  Davies,
Giraldus  (as  n.  11  )  p.  89  n.  12.

56